Overwhelming

Every morning I go for a walk around the track at school with one of my Uyghur friends. We take turns, one morning we only communicate in Uyghur and the next morning we only use English. Today was a Uyghur morning. As we were walking around the track other students were outside doing their morning studies and review. Thanks to a recently published book entitled “Crazy English”, students like to read their daily texts out loud, at the top of their lungs. So as we walk around the track I am often distracted by people shouting out introductions of their family, or other weird comments in my native tongue. This morning to add to the linguistical chaos, one boy was speaking on his cell phone in the national language (which I spent my first year out here studying). In a matter of two seconds my brain heard and understood three different languages, but I was too overwhelmed to know which was which, or to even continue talking with my friends. It was just way too much to take in.